This invention relates to roadway pavement markers of the type that include a resilient membrane designed to allow a reflector housing to move out of the path of a snowplow blade.
There have been a number of efforts to provide a snowplowable pavement marker that includes a resilient membrane supporting a reflector housing. See, for example, Held U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,766, Corless U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,312, Clarke U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,691, and Kone U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,536.
The pavement markers described in the Corless and Clarke patents use one or more exposed threaded fasteners to secure a reflector assembly to a rigid element that is supported by a resilient membrane in the center of the pavement marker. Such exposed fasteners provide disadvantages. Since they are exposed, they are more subject to salt damage and corrosion, and in an extreme case they have the potential of snagging on an oncoming snowplow blade. If this happens, the fastener may in principle be damaged or pulled completely out of the pavement marker. Furthermore, exposed fasteners of the type used in the Corless and Clarke patents can be targets of vandalism since they are readily visible to any bypasser.
The pavement marker described in the Kone patent provides a reflector assembly that is received in a channel defined by metallic element embedded in the resilient membrane. This approach suffers from the disadvantage that the reflector assembly can be removed from the channel by sliding it out of the channel.
A need presently exists for an improved pavement marker that is less subject to the disadvantages described above.
The pavement marker described below includes a reflector housing that is carried by an anchor plate that is in turn carried by a resilient membrane. The reflector housing is secured to the anchor plate by mechanical fasteners such as threaded screws, and the mechanical fasteners are hidden by reflectors that are adhesively secured to the reflector assembly. With this approach, the elements of the reflector housing that protect the reflectors from snowplow damage simultaneously serve the function of protecting the mechanical fasteners from damage. When it is necessary to replace a reflector housing, access can be gained to the threaded fasteners by prying the reflectors loose, thereby exposing the threaded fasteners.
The foregoing paragraph has been provided by way of general introduction, and it is not intended to limit the scope of this invention.